Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population
Group living is an important behavioral feature in some species of mammals, although somewhat uncommon in the Order Carnivora. Wolves Canis lupus are highly social and cooperative carnivores that live in family groups, i.e. packs. The number of wolves in a pack affects social, reproductive and preda...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/227478 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 |
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ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/227478 2024-02-11T10:02:43+01:00 Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population Fernández-Gil, Alberto Quevedo, Mario Barrientos, Luis M. Nuño, Ángel Naves, Javier Gabriel, Miguel de Ordiz, Andrés Revilla, Eloy 2020 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/227478 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 en eng Nordic Council for Wildlife Research Publisher's version https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 Sí Wildlife Biology, 20 (2). 2020 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/227478 doi:10.2981/wlb.00594 open Canis lupus Grey wolf Pack size Rendezvous sites Winter artículo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 2020 ftcsic https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 2024-01-16T11:01:44Z Group living is an important behavioral feature in some species of mammals, although somewhat uncommon in the Order Carnivora. Wolves Canis lupus are highly social and cooperative carnivores that live in family groups, i.e. packs. The number of wolves in a pack affects social, reproductive and predatory behavior, thus conditioning population dynamics. Despite its relevance to management decisions, pack size has not been thoroughly studied in populations inhabiting human dominated landscapes such as the Iberian Peninsula. We estimated variation of wolf pack size from 1990 to 2018 in northern Spain, both in winter and summer. Winter data corresponded to direct observations and snow tracking at 42 localities (n = 253 data, 160 pack-years), whereas summer data corresponded to observations at rendezvous sites at 22 localities (n = 237 data, 43 pack-years). We estimated average pack size from the largest number of wolves recorded at each locality and year. Winter pack size averaged 4.2 ± 1.7 (mean ± SD) individuals. At summer rendezvous sites adult/subadult wolves (older than one year) averaged 3.1 ± 1.3 individuals, whereas pups averaged 4.0 ± 1.9. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) showed that pack size declined through the winter from 4.9 (4.2–5.6, 95% CI) wolves in November to 3.8 (2.9–4.9, 95% CI) wolves in April. We found no trend in pack size, neither in winter nor in summer. We discuss our results compared with other studies and populations worldwide, and its usefulness to comprehend the dynamics of this vulnerable population. Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Wildlife Biology 2020 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) |
op_collection_id |
ftcsic |
language |
English |
topic |
Canis lupus Grey wolf Pack size Rendezvous sites Winter |
spellingShingle |
Canis lupus Grey wolf Pack size Rendezvous sites Winter Fernández-Gil, Alberto Quevedo, Mario Barrientos, Luis M. Nuño, Ángel Naves, Javier Gabriel, Miguel de Ordiz, Andrés Revilla, Eloy Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population |
topic_facet |
Canis lupus Grey wolf Pack size Rendezvous sites Winter |
description |
Group living is an important behavioral feature in some species of mammals, although somewhat uncommon in the Order Carnivora. Wolves Canis lupus are highly social and cooperative carnivores that live in family groups, i.e. packs. The number of wolves in a pack affects social, reproductive and predatory behavior, thus conditioning population dynamics. Despite its relevance to management decisions, pack size has not been thoroughly studied in populations inhabiting human dominated landscapes such as the Iberian Peninsula. We estimated variation of wolf pack size from 1990 to 2018 in northern Spain, both in winter and summer. Winter data corresponded to direct observations and snow tracking at 42 localities (n = 253 data, 160 pack-years), whereas summer data corresponded to observations at rendezvous sites at 22 localities (n = 237 data, 43 pack-years). We estimated average pack size from the largest number of wolves recorded at each locality and year. Winter pack size averaged 4.2 ± 1.7 (mean ± SD) individuals. At summer rendezvous sites adult/subadult wolves (older than one year) averaged 3.1 ± 1.3 individuals, whereas pups averaged 4.0 ± 1.9. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) showed that pack size declined through the winter from 4.9 (4.2–5.6, 95% CI) wolves in November to 3.8 (2.9–4.9, 95% CI) wolves in April. We found no trend in pack size, neither in winter nor in summer. We discuss our results compared with other studies and populations worldwide, and its usefulness to comprehend the dynamics of this vulnerable population. Peer reviewed |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fernández-Gil, Alberto Quevedo, Mario Barrientos, Luis M. Nuño, Ángel Naves, Javier Gabriel, Miguel de Ordiz, Andrés Revilla, Eloy |
author_facet |
Fernández-Gil, Alberto Quevedo, Mario Barrientos, Luis M. Nuño, Ángel Naves, Javier Gabriel, Miguel de Ordiz, Andrés Revilla, Eloy |
author_sort |
Fernández-Gil, Alberto |
title |
Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population |
title_short |
Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population |
title_full |
Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population |
title_fullStr |
Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pack size in humanized landscapes: the Iberian wolf population |
title_sort |
pack size in humanized landscapes: the iberian wolf population |
publisher |
Nordic Council for Wildlife Research |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/227478 https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_relation |
Publisher's version https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 Sí Wildlife Biology, 20 (2). 2020 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/227478 doi:10.2981/wlb.00594 |
op_rights |
open |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00594 |
container_title |
Wildlife Biology |
container_volume |
2020 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1790598774492495872 |